Early Summer Vacation To Croatia

We apparently LOVE Croatia, but if you have been there you will see the attraction to this amazing beautiful inexpensive country. We were invited by our neighbors in joining them on their daughter’s birthday wish to go to Croatia recently. Though we were a bit hesitant since the kids and I were going on a road trip with Croatia on our itinerary but then we were forced into it (just kidding). Since my husband was going to be away for the entire summer and our wedding anniversary was the same week we thought “why not?”. We didn’t tell the kids as we wanted it to be a huge surprise as they have been BUGGING me for the last 10 months for us to go to Croatia and when were we going to go there again.

The Plans

We actually did the plans in a spur of the moment. We were leaving in about 3 weeks when we finally decided. I booked round trip plane tickets via RyanAir for the wonderful price of $525 for all 5 of us. Can I just say… I love RyanAir? The reason why we decided to fly is that the drive would have taken 12+ hours and we had to take two vehicles because there were 11 of us travelling. Yes 11! Ahhhh! 7 kids! Ahhhhh!

After booking our plane tickets I booked our accommodations. I decided to stay at the fabulous Zaton Holiday Resort in Nin, Croatia. You can read more HERE.

Instead of driving to the Baden Baden airport, I wanted to show our friends how to ride the train. So we took the DB (Deutsche Bahn) from the nearest train station near us to Baden Baden. ***Note: Your printed online ticket with DB WILL NOT work on the bus to the airport regardless if you already paid for it! It was about 5€ for the 5 of us. Baden Baden Airport is a pretty small airport. They DO NOT have any restaurants, but they do have a small cafe. I do recommend bringing your own snacks due to that.

DO get a Rental Car! Yes! I highly recommend renting or hiring a car while in Croatia. They don’t have an amazing rail system like much of the Western European countries plus getting a taxi for 11 people is quite steep. We booked via RyanAir and for 6 days it was only 85€ from Sixt! We really enjoyed our rental car (Ford Focus Estate) and my husband loved to drive it! We were able to do tons of day trips from our accommodations at Zaton.

Our trip was pretty relaxing since we did spend a good 2 1/2 days at the resort relaxing poolside, but we did check out Zadar and Krka National Park.

Zadar

When the kids and I were in Croatia last year we absolutely fell in love with Zadar and I wanted to show my husband and our friends why we fell in love with it! I love the old city charm that Zadar has to offer. The main city of Zadar was built upon Roman and Venetian ruins with beautiful city gates! Some of our favourites in Zadar are of course the Salute to the Sun and the Sea Organ. Unfortunately, the Sea Organ was not working while we were there since it is was getting maintenance. Parking is very cheap in Zadar we only paid between 4-7 kuna which is about .50 to $1.00 USD per hour! Whooohooooo!

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Krka National Park

Wow! Wow! And more WoW! You have to add Krka National Park to your list of places to venture to while you are visiting Croatia. We parked near the small village of Skadrin. It was 40 kuna ($6 USD) to park at a campsite that offers parking. The walk through Skadrin is absolutely beautiful with old buildings (some in disrepair), a beautiful bell tower, 2 OLD OLD OLD sarcophaguses (pretty neat) and more. It is a very charming small town. This is one of the few areas to meet the ferry boat to go to the waterfalls. The cost for the ferry boats and entry for the waterfalls were 110 kuna for adults and 80 kuna for kids over 8 years old. The waterfalls were beautiful! Unlike Plitvice, you can swim at Krka and I highly recommend it. Just fair warning… the water is FREEZING!

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Tips For Croatia

Like stated above, try getting a rental car.

Use their currency: Croatian Kuna

They speak English, but ask them how to say commonly used words! Hvalla (thank you).

Zadar IS stroller friendly!

Do check out Salute to the Sun

Things to do:

Do a submarine tour, but I recommend NOT taking it if the sea is choppy. We got a little seasick.

Like zipline? Check out Adventure Park Zadar << we were not able to do this since we ran out of time. Kids 4+ can participate!

Saw signs for this super cute little wild west amusement park in Nin called Buffalo Bill City. Unfortunately they are only open on certain days.

Another activity that we didn’t get to participate in were the Medicinal Mud bath in Nin. I think I might put this on my list on or next trip!

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Jennifer is a US-expat living in Europe. She is a travel blogger specializing in Kid Friendly travel. She loves travelling, spending time with her family, drinking coffee (about 1x per month... so she is a little crazy) and an overall awesome person. Well at least I think I am awesome. Thank you for reading!